LITMIR.BIZ

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out backpack. The owner ,a dark haired young man was speaking loudly into his mobile

      ‘Jason here. Nothing much happening in Singapore. I’ll contact you from Sydney if he contacts me.’

      The backpack flapped open showing rainbow layers of shirts. Christopher made a grab for the backpack and caught one side. Shirts spilled onto the ground.

      ‘Sorry,’ muttered Christopher. ‘I just didn’t see it.’ Nervously he pushed back his round glasses. Owners of glasses weren’t always clumsy. People just expected them to be. So he tried to close the flap carefully.

      ‘Idiot!’

      Jason dropped on his knees and looked around quickly to check who was watching him. Amy was. So was Fifi. Who stepped towards him.

      ‘Excuse me young man! Where did you get those?’

      ‘ER ... I bought them...’Jason looked slightly nervous.

      ‘But who did you buy them for?’ Fifi pulled one out for a closer look.

      ‘That’s none of your business.’ Jason stuffed the shirts back inside.’ I like lots of changes.’ Then he turned ,strapped the purple and aqua backpack and put it quickly into the baggage chute. That meant it would be stored underneath in the baggage compartment of the plane. Hand luggage went on board with the passengers. Amy clutched her backpack. Edwina was inside. She was hand luggage, always.

      ‘It just MIGHT be my business,’ boomed Fifi. ‘Just a minute young man!’

      But the airline clerk interfered.

      ‘Your tickets are here Madam. And I must keep the queue moving. Could you talk somewhere else?’

      Firmly the clerk gave out the tickets and grabbed Jason’s bag. It jerked down the conveyor belt.

      People in the queue were complaining. ‘This is so slow!’

      ‘Can’t they hurry up?’ The burly man looked unhappy.

      Quickly Jason flipped the phone shut and stowed it in his briefcase. After getting his boarding pass, he strode away.

      Fifi couldn’t move fast enough. ‘I’ll catch up with you later, young man!’

      Meanwhile, Christopher thought about what Jason said. He was wrong. Lots happened in Singapore, especially if you stayed with Mum’s family. Swimming, eating at roadside stalls, visiting temples and extra Chinese lessons if their grandmother caught them. Gran didn’t think much of their Chinese language skills. So she made them speak it all the time. And then a man gave a mysterious package to your sister. That was something happening!

      ‘I wonder why he has so many shirts? You couldn’t change thirty times a day.’

      ‘Maybe he likes being colour coordinated?’

      ‘With that many colours! Co-ordinated with what?’

      Later the twins found out. Once they had their seat allocations, Amy wanted to look around the airport shops.

      ‘Gateway 8 at 11 am. You know where to go and what to do?’

      ‘Yes. Thank you.’ Amy gave Christopher his boarding pass.

      Children travelling alone were called Unaccompanied Minors, or UMs.

      The airlines looked after them even though the twins had travelled by themselves many times before.

      ‘Hurry up. We’ve got an hour before the plane goes. Let’s look for the mystery man. AND I’ve got a few Singapore dollars left from Gran’s New Year’s “lucky’ money”.

      She unwrapped the ‘lucky’ red paper.

      Outside the flower shop, Amy looked at the jonquils and peonies. ‘Aren’t they the flowers with Chinese names which mean wealth?’

      ‘Can’t remember the Chinese word,’ admitted Christopher. Their grandmother wouldn’t be pleased about that. She’d spent the holidays improving their Chinese conversation.

      ‘There’s another U.M.’ Christopher pointed at the dark haired boy sitting with a name-tag on his jacket.

      An airport attendant was bending over, speaking to him kindly. He had a wrapped present in his lap.

      ‘Looks like a first-timer.’

      ‘Hi. Why are you going to Sydney?’

      The boy looked at them. “How did you know where I was going?’

      ‘You’ve got SYD on your hand luggage. You’re sitting near the gateway for the Sydney plane and you’re wearing the uniform of a Sydney school.’

      ‘Oh. I bet you don’t know what’s in this?’ he pointed to the red wrapping.

      ‘Chinese New Year present?’ Amy guessed.

      ‘No, it’s a fruitcake. Mum sent it to my host family but they don’t eat fruitcake. Anyway I forgot to give it to them.’

      ‘The attendant interrupted. ‘Should you be on my list? Are you two travelling alone too?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Amy quickly. ‘But we’re fine. We do it all the time. The airline knows about us.’

      Beforehand, Mum and Dad always planned every travel detail. Tickets. Passports, currency, departure and arrival times, bags, labels.

      And how to say ‘I’m lost and I’m staying at .........’ in the local language. Luckily, this time, the twins were flying home to Australia , so language wasn’t a problem.

      Today their parents had left them with the airport staff and then hurried to work. They were taking special photographs of VIPs having breakfast with the orang-utan at Singapore’s Zoological Gardens.

      ‘Are you sure you’ll be all right? Aunty Viv will meet you in Sydney. I told her the arrival time and the flight number.’

      ‘We’ll be okay. Say hi to the orang-utan for us.’ They kissed goodbye.

      Although a staff member was always nearby, Amy and Christopher liked to look after themselves.

      ‘Woof, woof. Do you bite?’ said the UM looking at the sign above Amy ‘s head.

      She looked up too.

      ‘Very funny,’ said Amy in a voice which meant the opposite. What a dag!

      Above her was the DRUG DETECTOR DOG sign. Underneath it said DO NOT PET OR BITE.

      ‘Where are your parents?’ asked the UM.

      ‘Working in Singapore this week.’

      Because they were eco-photographers , Mum and Dad wrote about and photographed wild life or threatened places. Often the twins flew to meet them at the airport closest to their work.

      ‘My parents are at home. I won a trip to a school maths competition in Singapore and I came second. Yesterday my host family took me to Bird Park Jurong, Sentosa Island and the Haw Par Village. It used to be called the Tiger Balm Gardens . I nearly got lost there. ‘

      ‘Hey! Wild! Isn’t that their latest song? ‘

      Music trickled through the sound system but the UM kept talking.

      ‘Have you ever been lost? ‘

      Amy nodded but the UM took no notice. He put the red parcel on the seat and just kept talking.

      ‘They thought I was lost last term. I was sick at school . When I told Mrs Hill my teacher, they put me in the sickbay. I fell asleep. At home time I was still asleep and the teacher forgot about me. They went home.’

      ‘Was this in Singapore or home in Australia?’ Christopher wasn’t listening properly.

      ‘In Australia of course. At St Micheals. When

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